1 THE CULTURAL CONFLICT OF THE AMERICAN INDIAN PEOPLE: A BRIEF OVERVIEW ON TWO AMERICAN INDIAN FICTIONS Rahmad mdayatl and Rizki Februansyah2 Abstract: Indian people are indigenous people of America, who had livedfor centuries and long before the coming of European people to America in 15003. There are many tribes, even more than a hundred, among the Indian people. Each of them lived in group and has their own characteristics, such as language, custom, and culture. The contact between the Indian people and the European people brought a new era especially for the Indian people, which later changed the life of the Indian people from traditional into modem. It bears a cultural conflict for Indian people as can be seen in the works of Indian fictions such as House Made of Dawn and Auntie Angie's Cheyenne Affair, both written by Indian people, N Scoll Momaday and Adrian C Louis, respectively. In all cases, both novels represent the problems of cultural conflict encountered by the Indian people when they lived between two cultures, traditional and modem ones. This emerges in the writers' portrayals of their Indian young generation characters as the result of the changingfrom traditional to modem life. Key wortis: Indian people, contact, cultural conflict, traditional, and modern Rahmad Hidayat at +6285649060957 is an Euglish lectmer of Sunan Girl University, Sidoarjo, and State Islamic Institute (lAIN) ofSW18DAmpeI, Surabaya. 2 RlzkyFebruansyah at+628121594825.isa lecturer of the English Language and Literature Study Program, Cultural Sciences Department, Faculty of Social and Political Sciences of Jenderal Soedirman University, Purwokerto. 152 Celt, Volume S. Number ~ December 2008: 137-153 environmentaJ place.. HOfISe Mode 0/ Dawn and A.wrtie AIIgie's Cheyenne Affair, written by N. Scott. Momaday and Adrian C. Louis respectively, can . - . be also read as theAmerican Indian works to criticize the modem way oflife since they criticize the negative impacts to the life of the YOUDg American Indian generations. In House Made o/Dawn, Abel reflects confusion and loss of identity when he goes back to his COIDIIl1IDity after leaving it for a long time. While the portrayal of the young American Indian generations in Auntie Angie's Cheyenne Affair exemplifies how they are entrapped in a modem life in the city of America in which it c1umges their attitudes and behaviors far from American Indian wayofIife. In terms of the illustration of young American Indian generations in the two fictions, aD of them represent the cultural conflict as the impact of adjustment problems. This results in deviant attitudes and behaviors represented by Abel and Mariana Two Knives and her American Indian friends. Culturally, they &ce many ditl'erences of way oflife in the city when they leave their own COIDIIl1IDity as American Indian people. It is hard for them to hold the American Indian way of life due to the changing of the environment where they live. They feel that living in the city, which offers modem life, caneasi1ymin their traditional values. To conclude, the two fictions explore the disparity of between traditional and modern way of lives. Abel and the old American Indian woman realize that traditional American Indian lifestyle offers good moral values, although many people (especially the white ones) think that it is old and out-dated. By holding American Indian moral values, both writers seem to argue that the American Indian generation can become wise men and will not lose their identities as human being. REFERENCES Abrams, M.H. The Mirror and the lAmp: Ronumtic Theory and the Critical 7radition. London: Oxford University Press, 1976. BarrettA. Carole. (ed).brerlctmbrdlan history. Salem Press, Inc. 2003. R. BUltzyIlt IUId R. FebnlllllSYM, The Cultural Conflict of American Indians 153 Crawford. Bartholow V; Alexander C. Kern, Morris H. Needleman. American Literature. New York: BamesandNoble, Inc., 1966. Guerin, Wtlfml L. (ed). A Handbook of Critical Approaches to Literature. Oxford University Press., 1999. Debo, Angie. A History of the Indians of the United States. the University of Oklahoma Press. 1970. Harrison, Lawrence E and Samuel P. Huntington (eels). Culture Maners: How Values ShapeHumanProgress. The Perseus Books Group. USA., 2000. Hirscheelder, Arlene (ed). Native Americans (A History in PictuTe3). New York: Dorling Kindersley Publishing, Inc. 2000. Hoxie, Fredereick E. Encyclopedia of American Indian. The University of Oklahoma Press, U.S.A. 1996. Hughes, J. Donald American Indian Ecology. The University ofTexaa at EI Paso: TexasWestemPress, 1983. Leahy, Todd Historical Dictionary ofNativeAmerican Movements. The Scarecrow Press, Inc. 2008. Louis, Adrian C. Wild Indian & Other Creatures. Nevada: University of Nevada Press, 1996. Kitano. H.L. Harry. Race Relatio1l3. Prentice Hall, Inc. New Jersey. 1985. Momaday, N. Scott. Hmue Made of Dawn. New York: HarperCollins Publisher, Inc., 1999. Ross, Marc Howard. Cultural Contestation in Ethnic Conflict. Cambridge University Press, 2007. Velie, Alan R. American Indian Literature: An Anthology. University of Oklahoma Press, 1991. Weinstein, Allen and David Rubel. The Story of America. Freedom and Crisis from Settlement to Superpower. DKPublishing, Inc. New York, 2002. Willdns, David E .. American Indian Politic3 and the American Political System. USA: Rowman and Littlefield Publisher, Inc., 2002. www.usinfo.state.gov. Adrian C. Louis, in Stories of Adrian Auntie Angie's Cheyenne Affair. In http://wwwenglisb.uiuc.edulmapsl poets/glIlouisl stories.htm, 2008.